From Bendigo Advertiser
Reported by Luke West
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THE Bendigo Gold are tonight preparing for a VFL clash at the Queen Elizabeth Oval against Collingwood that can be best described as a battle of David v Goliath.
Tonight’s game pits the minnows of the VFL, the Gold, against the biggest sporting club in the land, the Magpies.
While the Gold are in their first season as a stand-alone club in the VFL and fighting for respect – both from their opposition and the Bendigo community – Collingwood is not only a power of the football world, but a brand that is the Australian equivalent of English soccer’s Manchester United and the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers.
The Magpies are a big-ticket item and a bumper crowd of more than 2000 is expected at the QEO tonight to watch the likes of AFL premiership players Alan Didak, Luke Ball, Ben Johnson, Andrew Krakouer and Darren Jolly take on the young and inexperienced kids from Bendigo.
As well as the five premiership stars, six other Magpies players – Peter Yagmoor, Jack Frost, Marley Williams, Jackson Paine, Josh Thomas and Irishman Caolan Mooney – have AFL experience with Collingwood, while wingman Ben Kennedy is a highly-rated first-round draft pick who has also been named.
But according to coach Aussie Jones, don’t expect the Gold players to be daunted by the challenge of taking on the star-studded Magpies, who are only one win better off than Bendigo after three rounds.
“This game on Friday night is a challenge our boys will thrive on,” Jones said this week.
“Our boys don’t look at how big the opposition club is coming up the highway, they just embrace every challenge and they get the chance this week to go up against some very good AFL players.
“Just like our game against North Ballarat last week, as long as the effort is what it should be, we’ll take whatever result comes.”
The Gold have started the season 0-3 with losses by a combined 339 points against Essendon (90 points), the Northern Blues (164) and country rivals North Ballarat (85).
But in this early stage of the club’s development, the scoreboard is of little consequence to Jones – so long as the effort and endeavour from his players meets his standards.
That will be no different tonight against the Magpies, who are coached by Dale Tapping.
“As far as results go, irrelevant is probably too strong a word, but they are out of our control,” Jones said.
“But as long as our effort is good, and what we’ve done at times is put some match-ups on the board and say, on our day can Ricky Thompson beat Tom Bell from the Northern Blues, and the answer was yes.
“We’re trying to break it down, so that while we’re playing a team game, individually we’ve got players who can beat their opponent, and at the end of the day, that’s a tick for us.
“You’ve only got to look at this week with Galen Munari, who is a kid coming out of the Bendigo Pioneers playing his second VFL game and getting a chance to play on Andrew Krakouer.
“Whatever happens in that match-up, Galen is going to see first-hand a player who has played in an AFL premiership and been a very good player and get an understanding of what it takes to play at that level.
“Win-or-lose, both individually and as a team, we know we’re going to be better after Friday night’s game.”
Perhaps the best example of the opportunity provided by the Gold to young players is encapsulated by Alexander Pollock.
Pollock spent last year playing with premiers Bridgewater in the Loddon Valley Football League, but in round one of the VFL this year lined up on the QEO wing against Essendon’s Leroy Jetta, who has played 83 AFL games.
“And this week he may get the chance to line up on a wing on Alan Didak,” Jones said.
“We speak a lot during the week about the education being an ongoing process, but when the moment comes to play we ask them to just go out there and enjoy it and play on instinct.
“You could see that for the first three quarters last week against North Ballarat before we ran out of fit players in the last quarter.
“But the boys are all enjoying the experience and certainly don’t go into their shells... they don’t care who they line up on, and maybe that’s because of their genuine inexperience that they don’t know how good the players are that they’re playing on.
“They are fearless and it’s testament to the character of the players.”
With the Magpies in town, tonight shapes as the biggest game of the season from a commercial perspective for the Gold – and they are keen to make the most of it.
From 1pm to 4pm at the South Bendigo clubrooms the Gold will host a business luncheon featuring guest speakers Jones and Collingwood stars Dane Swan, Heath Shaw and Jarryd Blair.
And before tonight’s game, Swan, Shaw and Blair will be the guests at a Bendigo Gold Collingwood Happy Hour from 5pm to 6.30pm, also in the South Bendigo rooms.
Gold chairman Tim Dickson said tonight’s game was not only big for the club, but for the Bendigo community.
“From a community point of view, the opportunity to see some of the Collingwood names that are going to be running around on the QEO on a Friday night is just huge for Bendigo,” Dickson said.
“There’s an opportunity for kids to get close to these players... they will stand next to the likes of Alan Didak and Andrew Krakouer at the huddle and see the proper workings of the club instead of sitting in the nosebleed section at Etihad Stadium and looking down on them.
“It’s a real experience, and this is the opportunity which we can provide, which we’re aiming to capitalise on, particularly this week with Collingwood being the biggest show in town.”
Meanwhile, Dickson is comfortable with how the Gold are tracking in their first season as the club focuses on four key areas.
“Number one is culture, and I don’t think we could be in a better position culturally. We’re building a real footy club and the culture is there,” Dickson said.
“Second is community, and I don’t think there would be a football club in central Victoria that is doing more for the community than we are.
“Third is competitiveness, and when we talk about that, it’s not watching the scoreboard, it’s how we go about our footy.
“And lastly is pathways, which is what we’ve built ourselves around, and that being the opportunity for young players to take the next step.”
